Wednesday, December 9, 2015

‘Harry Lane is Innocent’ by J. Scaddon

London,
1948: Harry Lane is a 23-year-old child in a man’s body. He’s a simple sort,
not good with complicated tasks (like making eggs; he mixes the shells with the
eggs) but he can carry large sides of meat at the butcher’s shop, where he
works with his dad.

One
night, his father asks him to run an errand to his aunt’s, a walk he’s made
many times. But a new street sign confuses him, and it’s taking him a bit
longer, when he reaches Hunter’s Park. And what he walks into is a man brutally
murdering a young woman. The man walks off, and he rushes to help, only to have
her die in his arms. Just as a policeman comes up.

Harry Lane is Innocent is a new
novella from J. Scaddon, a writer
based in Wales and the author of several crime stories and children’s works. His
writing focuses on novellas and short stories. And he has a background in
forensic science that serves him well in this new story, and it is largely
because forensic evidence is ignored.

In
the short form of the novella, Scaddon explores a legal profession whose
members seem more interested in a golf game or a step up the career ladder than
in serving their clients, a judiciary that doesn’t want to be bothered with
details, a police force thrilled at how quickly it can make an arrest and extract
a confession, and a prison system that turns on strict order. The suspense and
the tension build as a young attorney races to have the Home Office issue a
stay in Harry’s execution. The ground Scaddon covers in what is a long short
story is amazing, as is gow he gets inside the mind of Harry Lane.

The
story is also educational. This is Britain in 1948, and capital punishment
still exists. The conversations between the two executioners assigned to hang
Harry are both instructive in the ways of state-approved death and chilling in their
details.

Poetry at Work

Follow by Email

My Business Web Site

Poetry at Work

About Me

Professional writer exploring faith and culture, life and work; happily married to Janet, the love of my life; father of two grown sons. Award-winning speechwriter and communication consultant. I am also a contributing editor for The High Calling and for TweetSpeak Poetry. I am also the author of the novels "Dancing Priest" and "A Light Shining," and the non-fiction book "Poetry at Work."